I’ve been in mobile for almost nine years and have always been keenly interested in how context can be affected by mobile. At a minimum, I’m interested in things like:

The location in which mobile is used

How location can affect user’s modality (ranging from passive to task-driven activities).

Which content people choose to consume

How much content they will consume

User’s receptivity to disruptive marketing messages

The location awareness of the device and the opportunities that creates in terms of relevance of display advertising, search results, etc.

I’m privy to many of the question asked by agencies about geo-targeting. It has been very common over the last year for our team to be asked “Can you do geo-fencing?” This question often comes without the benefit of an understanding of the true client objective. More often than not, we are not in the room when this idea first came to mind and are not in a position to challenge many of the assumptions that drove it. Naturally scale is always an issue to consider with any targeting.

I like to go further and challenge the objective in the first place. A lot of the questions about geo-fencing ignore some basic things we already understand about consumers, how they move through the marketing funnel and the timing involved. For example, does a person move from consideration to intent just because they are 100 feet from a store? Can you affect this timing with a display ad on mobile? Is that ad best served in the same DMA, perhaps 8 hours before the consumer is front of the store? How does the process change when considering big ticket vs. impulse purchases? Much to consider.

Marc Theermann (former Admeld mobile guy now at Google) posted his new landscape graphic on the mobile RTB ecosystem. He contends there are 2 main reasons that RTB will win in mobile:
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“1. In 24 months from now, the majority of all impressions will come from mobile operating systems. RTB is only efficient way to match buyers to sellers in this exponentially growing universe.

2. Location based targeting is perfectly suited for RTB. Finding the right users at the right time, while they are walking into a geo-fence can only be accomplished through RTB.”
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I think Marc is correct, especially with regard to geofencing. Despite being over hyped and over sold in the market place, the interest is there and demand for geo will continue to grow. Estimates are that lat/lon enabled inventory only represents 10-15% of all mobile inventory in exchanges. Even if it’s some what greater than that, Marc’s assertion seems on target (pun intended). I also think that solving the brand safety/transparency, privacy-friendly targeting and measurement issues will be key to adoption by big brands.